Tag Archives: Windows 8 RTM

We have been hearing a lot of rumors about the Windows Blue update which is supposed to be released in the second half of the year.Last month also saw the first leak of Wndoes Blue build leak and many of the blogs tried out that build on their systems.

Recently AngelWZR who closely follows the Windows Blue builds posted a screenshot which suggests that Windows Blue is dubbed as Windows 8.1 update,which is quite similar to the Windows Phone naming conventions which followed similar update numbering conventions.

Though we are yet to hear anything solid about Windows Blue features from Microsoft,we can expect them to shed some light on the same during the upcoming Build conference which is to be held in the month of June.The Windows Blue update is expected to hit RTM in the month of August.

First of all,those who are running the Windows 8 RTM Can right away download and enjoy the Modern UI based Firefox on their systems.

Mozilla has been working on the Modern UI version of Firefox which would run on the Windows 8 operating system.The latest build i.e Firefox 18.1 can be downloaded for those who already have a Windows 8 RTM up and running.

Brian Bondy recently updated his blog post with a list of new features of this version of firefox for Windows 8.

Metro browser registration capable installer

Zip builds which do registration upon setting default browser from within Firefox

Updates enabled

New navigation URL bar inspired by the australis theme

New tab bar with tab previews (double swipe from the top edge or bottom edge to expose the tab previews)

Alternate tab bar with always visible tabs

Auto complete screen with tile suggestions as you type

New touch optimized start screen with tiles

Windows 8 App bar with common functionality

Changes to the default theme to fit into Metro

Various new touch capabilities

Various keyboard shortcuts

On screen keyboard handling

Gesture support

In-page text selection

Crash reporting

Telemetry support

Context sensitive default handling, if in Metro stay in Metro for link clicks

Sync support with browser through remote Firefox sync (Set it up through settings)

Support for the share data contract to share the current page with another Metro application

Support for the search contract to search inside Firefox whether or not Firefox is already open

Support for the settings contract accessible via the settings charm

Support for snap and filled states, to use Firefox and another Metro application at the same time

Metro open and save file picker support

Support for secondary tiles (pinned websites to your start screen)

View current page on desktop functionality

Support for pdfjs: In content PDF viewer built in JavaScript

Spell checking enabled

Since the browser is currently in its early stages of development there are some of the features which are disabled in the current build like Flash has been disabled but We will see it in future updates,while Add-On support has also been disabled for this version and will be added via Add-On SDK later on.

Among other things Panning and Zooming support is also disabled,while mouse scrolling is not working at the moment,so users will have to use either the keyboard or the touch input for scrolling through pages.Windows 8 is the only supported operating system for this browser while There is no support for DirectX 9 as of now.

A couple of days ago we reported aout the vulnerability in the flash version of Internet Explorer 10 not being the updated one due to the integration of the flash player in the browser instead of a third party plugin.
Tough the other browsers were ale to update to the latest version,updating on Internet Explorer 10 is only allowed via the windows updates.Earlier When asked about the fix the Microsoft spokesperson said that the fix will be available by the public release.

But now it seems Microsoft has had a change of heart,as reported earlier by ZDNet,

In an e-mailed statement to the ZDNet author, Yunsun Wee, Director of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, said:

In light of Adobe’s recently released security updates for its Flash Player, Microsoft is working closely with Adobe to release an update for Adobe Flash in IE10 to protect our mutual customers. This update will be available shortly. Ultimately, our goal is to make sure the Flash Player in Windows 8 is always secure and up-to-date, and to align our release schedule as closely to Adobe’s as possible.

According to another source,the update will be released via Windows Updates as early as end of next week.Though the question still remains about the alignment of the updates from adobe and Microsoft,since adobe usually release its pdates on 3rd or 4 Tuesday!Microsoft’s usual security update is Patch Tuesday(2nd tuesday of the month).So by the time Windows 8 hits General Availability they should try and Align their update releases for further updates,so that there won’t be any such issues in the future.

Lenovo has finally come up with a Windows 8 upgrade offer,so the users who buy a selected Windows 7 based PCs from Lenovo will be able to avail free Windows 8 upgrades via a refund.

Though Lenovo haven’t yet put up the offer on their official site,this report comes from a third party rebate site,spotted earlier by Neowin.The offer is valid from 31st August till 1st of January 2013 on select Lenovo models,including the IdeaPad series Z,P, U, and Y laptops,IdeaCentre A, B, and K desktop/AIO PCs and the Lenovo N and G laptops and the Lenovo desktop.

The rebate will be made in the form of a 15$ pre-paid Visa card.In order to proceed further for Rebate Redemption users will have to complete the online Rebate Redemption form,verify data,take a Print and submit of the Rebate Redemption Form and the Microsoft Windows® 8 Upgrade receipt.They will also have to submit the ORIGINAL Lenovo PC sales receipt or invoice and the UFC label on the box to their address,while users will have to maintain a copy of all the documents with themselves.

Now as we inch closer to the public release of Windows 8,the Windows Store has crossed the 1000 apps milestone,according to McAkins,a third party app tracking site.As of 6th September the Store has 1004 apps which includes the Windows 8 desktop apps and the Metro Modern UI based apps.With this rate we can expect around 3000 apps or even more by the time it hits General Availability on 26th October,if the apps continue to flow at this rate.

One more thing,rather an error was also spotted by the site in the Ratings of the apps,with some of the apps being rated as 5 star even though the app has received only one 5 star rating,this goes for a bunch of apps,while some of the popular apps like MetroTwit which has received hundreds of ratings of 4.7 has got a lower rating than those apps.

Windows 8 hit the RTM on 1st august for various manufacturers and after a couple of weeks for the Technet and MSND subscribers and developers.if you happened to be using the Internet Explorer 10(default browser)on your Windows 8 system,you are putting yourself to the risk.

As reported earlier by ZDNet,Adobe released the critical security update patch for the Flash Player last month,to address vulnerabilities that could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system made available for all the browsers,except for the Internet Explorer 10.

Users of Windows 8 RTM cannot manually update the flash version on your Internet Explorer 10,oLyMicrosoft can do it,since the Flash version is built into the browser unlike some browsers who have a plugin support for flash,in order to have a plugin free experince for users,but this is the Very reason for the update Release issue.

When asked about this issue ,a Microsoft spokesperson said that they are aware of this issue but the fix will only come by the General Availability of Windows 8 via Windows Updates,which is still almost 2 months away from the release(October 26th).

As all of us already know that Microsoft has made it clear that there won’t be an upgrade path from Windows 8 Release Preview or for any other test versions of Windows 8 to Windows 8 RTM.

But then there are always the enthusiasts who try to work things around and come up with something.So Mr. Denny From IT Knowledge Exchange has come up with a workaround which allows not just the Release Preview users but even those who are running the Consumer Preview or even the Developer Preview can upgrade to Windows 8 RTM.

Here’s how it works,

Firstly search for the n:\sources\cversion.ini file in the installation media,after locating the file,open it up in notepad and change the 8508 to 7100,then save and exit.

You are almost done !now you just have to proceed with the installation of Windows 8 RTM from your existing Preview version of Windows 8.Since there is no official upgrade path from the earlier version to Windows 8,this process is not supported,so try it at your own risk.

Microsoft announced the Windows 8 Upgrade offer a couple of months ago,according to this offer all those who would purchase an eligible Windows 7 PC starting from June 2, 2012 to January 31, 2013 will be eligible for the Windows 8 Pro upgrade for a price of $14.99 when it releases publically on 26th October.

The registrations for the offer are now open as reported earlier on their official Windows Team Blog.So after you buy the PC(or if you have bought the Windows 7 PC on or after June 2nd) you can head over to the Official Windows Upgrade Offer Site.Fill in the registration along with your personal details,date of purchase,retailer and brand and model number of your PC.You should also have the Windows 7 Product Key in order to proceed the registration.

After you register for the offer,you will get the promo code via email starting from October 26th along with the purchase instructions.After that You will be directed to Windows.com.From there you will go through the online upgrade process with the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant.After you reach the purchase screen in the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, it will show the $39.99 upgrade price which is a standard Windows 8 Pro upgrade price. However, on the order confirmation page you’ll get an option to enter your promo code – that price will change to $14.99.After the final purchase is made your download and installation will begin.

To register for this offer you will You will have until February 28, 2013 in order to get Windows 8 Pro upgrade for $14.99.However if you happen to have a Windows PC which has been bought prior to the offer ,you can avail yourself the $39.99 offer.Both of these offers are available in over 140 countries, 37 supported languages, and 23 supported currencies.

Windows 8 reached RTM on 1st august as well as it reached a few early adopters who have access to TechNet or MSDN subscription on 15th august.

As we already know that this time around Windows Media Center will be available as Add On Feature (paid feature) for the Windows 8 users,though the early adopters who upgrade their Windows 7,Vista or Windows XP to Windows 8 Pro before January 31st 2013 will get the feature for free.

There is still no official word on how much the add on will cost after the upgrade offer.But according to recent reports coming from Windows8Core, the Windows Media Center add on will cost $12.79,which they discovered during the installation process of Windows Media Center from Windows 8 RTM.

As you can see from the above screenshot,which indicates that the Windows Media Center add on will cost $12.79 for the users from the united states.The article contains a step by step process to upgrade to Windows Media Center from Windows 8 Pro.

Though at this moment there is no confirmation from Microsoft about any such upgrade plans,but we can expect an official word in coming days as we are a few weeks away from the official public launch of Windows 8 which is scheduled for 26th October.

But if you don’t have any of the accounts and want to try out the latest offering from Microsoft,its your lucky day! Microsoft has released an evaluation version of Windows 8 Enterprise Edition(both 32bit and 64 bit versions) for the users.The evaluation version will be valid for 90 days,after which the users will have to separately buy the full version and to a clean install since the Evaluation version is not upgradable.

Here are some of the things to know before downloading the evaluation version of Windows 8,

Things to Know Before You Start

The evaluation edition will expire and cannot be upgraded.

To upgrade, the evaluation must be uninstalled and a non-evaluation version of Windows must be re-installed from your original installation media.

Consider running the evaluation edition in a virtual environment or installing on a separate hard drive or partition. The will allow you to upgrade your original Windows installation to Windows 8.

During registration (required) you must login with a Microsoft account and provide your name, e-mail address and country.

You are required to activate the product online within 10 days after installing.

Once the evaluation is installed, you cannot upgrade. To revert to a previous version of Windows, you must do a clean install from your original installation media.

Activation and Usage Guidelines

Back up your files and settings before installing this evaluation and again prior to the 90-day expiration.

Upon installation, you will have 10 days to activate this evaluation online. Windows will prompt you to activate. A product key is not required for this software.

You must complete activation before August 15, 2013, to use this evaluation.

Once you activate, you have up to 90 days to use the software. You can track the amount of time you have left by referring to the “watermark” in the lower right corner of the Windows desktop.

If you fail to activate this evaluation within the 10-day grace period, or if your evaluation period expires, the desktop background will turn black, you will see a persistent desktop notification indicating that the system is not genuine, and the PC will shut down every hour losing unsaved work.

Following the evaluation period, you will need to replace the operating system on your test computer and reinstall all your programs and data. It is not possible to upgrade the evaluation to a licensed working version of Windows 8. A clean installation is required.

So if you are going to install the Eval version it is highly recommended that you install it in a Virtual Environment or do a clean install on a separate drive,so that you can retain your existing version of Windows.